


Obey

by kittensmctavish



Category: BioShock, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Animal Abuse, Animal Death, Blood and Violence, Brainwashing, Character Death, Gen, Lightsabers, Mind Control, Would You Kindly (BioShock)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 17:52:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14062224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittensmctavish/pseuds/kittensmctavish
Summary: A man chooses…a slave obeys.(Or: that one big spoiler-y scene from The Force Awakens goes very differently.)(Or: The Force Awakens meets Bioshock.)Originally posted to tumblr February 4, 2018.





	Obey

**Author's Note:**

> So I’ve had this idea since I first saw The Force Awakens long ago. I love the crap out of Bioshock, which is a game that has a big twisty-mctwisty-twist about two thirds through the game. And I thought “…okay, replace Andrew Ryan with Han Solo, Jack with Kylo Ren, and [SPOILER] with Snoke”. So I ran with it.
> 
> I always loved the idea that Snoke was controlling Kylo so deeply that Kylo wasn’t even aware, and that Kylo was eventually gonna find out and break free of Snoke and destroy him and go back to the light. 
> 
> …oops.
> 
> But anywhoozle, I wanted to share my love of Bioshock with the Star Wars fandom, regardless of how poorly written it is.
> 
> (The bonus scene is also based on a spoiler-y audiolog from Bioshock, but I wanted to include it.)

Kylo Ren crosses the bridge slowly, barely noting the depths of the reactor shaft below him. His footsteps echo in the space, bouncing off every surface to the ears of anyone in the vicinity. Ahead of him, doing…something…planting something…stands Han Solo. His next target.

He stops when he’s close enough. Waits for Han to turn and face him. So he can take his death like a man.

Han doesn’t. He continues what he’s doing – planting charges. Explosives. It almost makes Kylo want to laugh. Almost.

***

Just above, Rey and Finn walk through the door that opens, to a balcony that overlooks the sight. They watch, guns poised. They don’t know what Kylo will do.

(Rey knows Kylo’s capable of anything.)

Chewbacca is a deck below, calls out to Han in warning.

***

“The Knight of Ren storms through Starkiller Base,” Han says, casual…snideness sneaking in, “…and now he’s come to murder me.” He sticks another charge against a column, walks to another. Continuing to talk. Kylo lets him – wonders where he’s going with this.

“In the end, what separates a man from a slave?” Han asks. “Money? Power?” Another charge is placed. “No. A MAN chooses; a SLAVE obeys.” Kylo can see the profile of Han. Notices a little smirk as eyes finally meet helmet. “You think you have memories…”

Unbidden, flashes of memories appear as Han mentions them.

“A family…”

_Kylo…Ben as a boy, a younger man…with his mother…his father…a younger version of the man standing before him…_

“A temple…”

_The Jedi temple…so many young Jedi in training…some Ben’s age, some younger, much younger…_

“A fire…”

_A banner in the Jedi temple, ablaze, spreading…_

“A massacre…”

_Bodies…scorched with flame, pools of blood…_

“…and then this…place.” Han gestures around him, an unimpressed look on his face. Kylo tilts his head, wondering where this is going. Has the old man lost it? Han turns away with another smirk and continues to plant explosives.

“Was there REALLY a family?” A knowing glance. “Was that fire an accident…or was it intentional?”

Another glimpse.

_A black-clad hand knocks a torch from its brace, into a banner…_

“A catalyst for the massacre to come…to cover things up?”

_The same black-clad hands, flash of red saber through flickering flame as the screams fill the air, choking on smoke…_

“Sparked by something less than a man, programmed to sleepwalk through life until activated by a simple phrase from their…kindly master?”

Han tosses a tool on the floor. Clatters echo the space.

“Was a MAN sent to kill…or a SLAVE?” Han almost snarls. “A MAN chooses; a SLAVE obeys.”

***

From above, Rey’s brow is knitted in the same confusion she feels radiating off Kylo (and the fact that they’re sharing this confusion irks her). It’s coming off of Finn, too, but a little less, it seems…(is this sort of talk familiar to stormtroopers? Or not, and he’s just reacting to seeing Han like this?)

Chewie growls a small growl of the same confusion. In all the years he’s known Han…he’s never seen Han like this…

***

Han finally faces Kylo again.

“Take off that mask,” Han scoffs. “We both know you don’t need it.”

“…What do you think you’ll see if I do?” Kylo scoffs (like father, like son). “A man or a slave?”

“My son, regardless,” Han says with a shrug. If there’s a flicker of pain in Han’s eyes, Kylo imagines it. Or ignores it.

The mask comes off. Han smiles. An unkind smile. A mocking smile.

“So eager to obey, aren’t you?”

There is enough taunt in that question for Kylo to storm forward, mask forgotten behind him, reaching for his saber. He takes orders from no one. He is a Knight of Ren, he will show this impertinent old man—

Han doesn’t flinch as Kylo lunges forwards. Just holds up a hand and utters four words:

“Stop, would you kindly?”

Kylo lurches to a halt. Just short of Han’s face. Those words…

“Would you kindly,” Han repeats, syllables rolling off his tongue as though tasting them. “Powerful phrase.” He raises his eyebrows, stares hard at Kylo. “Familiar phrase?”

Kylo’s mouth falls open as the three words echo in his head over and over and over (by a different voice, sinister, snakelike) and memories flood his eyes and his mind…

_Would you kindly?_

_WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly_ _Wouldyoukindly_  
LorSanTekkaWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyJakkuWouldyoukindly _WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly_  
killthemallWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlytheJedi _templeWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyou_  
kindlyWouldyoukindlystartafireWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly _WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly_  
WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly _KILLEVERYONEWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly_  
WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly _WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlythescavengergirlWouldyoukindly_  
Wouldyoukindly _WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyHuxWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyou_   
_kindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyactivatethebaseWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyDESTROY_ _THEMWouldyou_  
kindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyou _kindlyWouldyoukindlyyourfamily  
WouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyLEAVENOTHING_ _ALIVEWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindlyWouldyoukindly_

The last phrase, on its own:

_Would you kindly make your way to the reactor shaft and kill the son of a bitch that is your father?_

The lightsaber clatters to the bridge as Kylo’s fingers go limp.

He cannot move. Is it from shock? Is it from the words that left his father’s mouth? The realization? All he can do is stare at Han. How must his face read?

“Kneel, would you kindly?” Han asks, pointing down, a mirthless smirk growing as Kylo clambers to his knees. A chuckle. “Stand… _would you kindly?_ ” Kylo’s on his feet again as Han gestures up with his finger, as though he could raise Kylo himself with the Force.

“RUN.”

Kylo turns, runs as fast as he can, maybe he can get away before the next—

“STOP!”

He lurches to a halt, barely keeping himself from tumbling over the edge of the bridge, down into the reactor shaft…

“Turn.”

Kylo shakes as he turns, his father sauntering towards him, Kylo’s fallen lightsaber in his hand.

“A man chooses…a slave obeys.”

And Kylo almost can’t breathe. Almost crumples to the floor under the weight of these words and the still-hitting realization…

***

Rey watches in fascinated horror at the spectacle before her. Her head reels slightly, not just from the fact that this young…monster was Han’s son…but that he seems to be a different kind of monster…a puppet of sorts…

…and from the growing terror on Kylo’s (if that’s really his name) face, he seems to be as unaware of this as she is, as he kneels, stands, runs, stops, turns.

She wonders somewhere in the back of her mind if Kylo’s actions towards her were of his own volition…or if someone else had asked him to torture her…“would you kindly”.

(It’s horrid – hiding control under the pretense of request.)

And Han…one could be fooled into thinking he’s ENJOYING this, at ordering Kylo about, at literally bringing him to his knees with the reveal that he is not who he thinks he is…but Rey thinks there has to be a bit of sadness there as well…at what his son is…

***

Finn’s horror is a different one. At the simultaneous familiarity and unfamiliarity of the situation. Brainwashing in the stormtrooper fleets was nothing new, he’s fallen prey to some of it himself, not like he ever had a choice, but THIS…this was different.

In Finn’s experience, brainwashing was just usually being lulled into a certain state of mind. Being convinced that wrong was right and right was wrong and such. In all his years as a trooper, he’d never seen someone so far gone that they could be controlled by literally just the utterance of a few choice words. This went beyond what captains of the stormtrooper fleet were capable of.

And for a brief moment, he thinks he pities Kylo Ren.

***

Chewie’s horror is also a different one. Mainly…at what Ben has become. Turning on his family and joining the First Order was bad enough. The massacre was bad enough – worse, even. But THIS? The knowledge that it wasn’t even Ben’s doing? (Not by design, anyway, just by hands.) That that…SNAKE…had been controlling Ben from the beginning?

How did Han figure it out? Does Leia know? Why hadn’t Han told him?

***

It’s then that Han holds the lightsaber out to Kylo Ren.

And Rey and Kylo both know what’s coming before Han says a word (Rey calling out “Han, NO!” and Kylo shaking his head, trying to plead not to do this), before the next order comes as the cold metal is pushed into his hand:

“Kill.”

Kylo’s arm moves before he can think, striking Han in the head with the still unignited lightsaber. Han stumbles at the contact, catches himself on the railing, ignores the blood now trickling from his head. Just meets Kylo’s eyes again. There is a blaze there, a fierce glint as he half-screams, half-snarls.

“A MAN CHOOSES!”

Another strike, harder this time. and a small strangled sound escapes from the back of Kylo’s throat because it’s not supposed to happen this way. Han is almost falling to the floor of the bridge as he spits out blood and it WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY but Han is on his feet again, stumbling close to Kylo.

“A SLAVE OBEYS!”

The blade of the lightsaber ignites. Buries itself in Han’s chest as tears escape Kylo’s eyes because this was supposed to be HIS choice not his father’s not Snoke’s WHAT HAS SNOKE DONE TO HIM.

Han grab’s Kylo’s shoulder, clutches hard at the black fabric. Pulls himself further into the blade and closer to his son. Tears mingle with the blood coursing down his face. And he utters a final cry, a final order:

“OBEY!”

It echoes so loud and so long in Kylo’s head, long after he’s withdrawn his saber from his father’s body. Long after he barely registers Han tumbling over the railing and falling into the reactor shaft below.

It all echoes back in his head as it continues to dawn on him that his actions, his thoughts, are not – have never been – his own. At the monster he is. That Snoke has made him.

A blast hits his side. His mind is in such a whirl he barely registers pain, barely cares that he falls to the bridge on impact. But the impact is enough to emit a cry from him.

At what he is.

_Nice work, boy…_

Snoke chuckles somewhere in the recesses of Ben’s mind.

***

BONUS

***

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIOLOG FOUND BY HAN SOLO

***

[the happy mewing of a kitten, laughter from a boy]

“Is that your kitten, Ben?”

“Yes, Mister Snoke. Mine and Armie’s.”

“She’s very pretty.”

“Thank you. Armie named her Millicent.”

[a deep chuckle as the kitten mews on]

“Lovely. …kill her for me.”

“What?”

“Take your lightsaber and kill that sweet kitten for me.”

“No…please, Mister Snoke—”

“Kill sweet Millicent…would you kindly?”

“No…NO…”

[The ignition of a lightsaber, the kitten mewing…followed by a pained yowl from the kitten, a soft thud, and a boy sobbing]

“Very good, Kylo.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback welcome and appreciated.


End file.
